Posted on 10/14/2006 3:37:44 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
If every household in America changed just one traditional light bulb to a energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulb at home, combined efforts would save 5.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year or $526 million a year in electric expenses. This would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.
CFL light bulbs use 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent light bulbs and last up to ten times longer. Replacing a 60-watt incandescent with a 13-watt CFL can save consumers at least $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. CFLs last longer and come in different sizes and shapes to fit almost any fixture. Additionally, CFLs produce about 70% less heat than standard incandescent bulbs, so they are safer to operate.
(Excerpt) Read more at doe.gov ...
Your list of problems indicate you had insufficient wiring in the previous home. This causes voltage to vary and this is fatal to motors, like compressors, and refrigeration.
Your light bulbs also suffer and anything else is subject to failure like computer power supplies and the like.
I see it all the time in my line of work.
Yup. They also produce RF interferance.
We just use lower wattage bulbs around here. It's not a "green" thing, it's a money thing.
I can't wait until the LED lights get cheap enough to use in bulk. I like those a lot. Cheap light, easy on the eyes, and they are cool to the touch.
Ok, they have a 20,000 cps but what about spectrum? Also, the cost of LEDs vs fluorescent bulbs, how do they compare as to lumens/lifetime? If I remember correctly an LED has about a 10,000 hr rating, and they can be wired for 12 V or 120 V. I have a special application for LEDs : I'm in Eastern Star(women-masons that require a man-mason)and have to string cords for the 5 light-stands(w/2' fluorescents) every meeting(a hassle). So next week I'll research LEDs on a battery and get back to you.
They give off crappy light, no way will I use them.
If they are short on power they can build more power plants, i'll use whatever amount I desire.
Thanks for the CCrane link. They are too expensive for most purposes IMO, but a few of those look really interesting. I fully expect LEDs to come down in price dramatically within 5 years or so.
"We had a bunch in the recessed lights in the kitchen."
Read the fine print on the ballasts and you'll find that most all of these will have some sort of warning against using in recessed or totally enclosed fixtures. Some do better than others, but if you don't heed the warnings you are going to have some burn out prematurely.
I got about 10 of them in my house, no problem. They take a second to light up and a bit more to get "warm", but that is hardly a problem.
I do have to get a few that are dim-able for some dimming lights.
They are a great value, they provide good quality light, and they use much less electricity. Until LED lighting (which is even MORE efficient) become cost effective, CFL's are your best bet.
I have four children under the age of 10. They have not figured out how to turn off lights yet. I come home from work in the evening and the entire house is lit up like a XMAS tree. I have replaced almost all of my lights with these bulbs. Seems to be working fine.
They're crap. Wait until one or more of them start to burn out, the smell and the extra heat generated when they go, has you looking the house over for a fire. In the early morning hours, waking up to that heat smell, well that'll do more for you than coffee! I now burn exactly zero in my house. Blackbird.
Just my experience, we've placed them in a few areas in the house. One is a light we keep on for safety at night. The average bulb burned out within 2-3 months. The fluorescent bulbs have gone 2-3 YEARS.
We are quite impressed and we are replacing other bulbs in the house as they burn out.
Here is a true sore-point with these bulbs. In the above post, the light I'm referring to does emit a high frequency pitch that is barely audible, but obvious when you turn it on and off.
I haven't installed any of these bulbs close to electronic equipment. Now that you've made the association, I'll look for it in the bulbs we use now. They are just aren't noticable in their current location. Still, it would stop me from placing them in the home near electronics.
I am one who uses these bulbs, which my young nephew described as "curly" :) in all but three sockets.* I do so, without gov't say-so, for two reasons:
1. I get the light of a 100W incandescent for 23W.
2. They are advertised, I think accurately, as having the same spectrum as the sun. At any rate, incandescent bulb light seems a dingy yellow by comparison.
They seem to last longer as well. In short, I get 200W of light in each of four rooms, in a nicer (to me) spectrum, for the price of 46W, and the higher price of the bulbs seems to be offset by lower electric bills and longevity. I recommend them to anyone who asks, which is everyone who visits my home :)
*IMO they haven't yet developed a good-enough-for-me three-way bulb, so one of my lamps uses the old style. AFAIK, they haven't done any appliance bulbs either, so the fridge and oven are old-style as well.
I just buy what is cheapest at WalMart. I have not had bad experiences with whatever they sell.
Put them in the bathroom and they interfere with the shower radio, which is battery operated. :>(
It would also cost consumers an additional $1 billion a year just to buy the dang things, considering they cost $5.50 each compared to about 40-cents for a conventional bulb.
Maybe, although my husband had some electrical experience, and always watched that we didn't put too much on any of the circuits. At our first house (150 years old), when the lights dimmed each time the washer changed cycles I readily believed that was the problem. At the second house (referred to in my earlier post) I didn't have anything like that. Our area, though, was a growth area that needed some substation expansion. After the power company chose about their fifth location for it, prompting yet another NIMBY revolt, they gave up and said just live with your power problems... The power would go off 3-10 seconds in the mid-morning most days - my understanding was that the power company was shifting the load, doing it by the quick and easy one off, the other on method rather than the longer method that avoids disruptions. A friend of mine (who was also a township supervisor) said someone had told him that years ago, and when it got too bad (longer outages or happening a couple times a day, he'd call the power company and tell them they needed to stop that and give us consistent power, and it would stop for awhile (he just lived a couple blocks from me). I understood that the power-on-power-off was probably what was playing heck with my lights and appliances. My next-door-neighbor didn't have that problem, but he had installed a whole-house UPS not long after after he moved in ;-)
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